Coleman Collins is putting together an impressive season on the court while he tries to cope with his father's cancer. He is an extraordinarily well-spoken young man who parses his thoughts into precise phrases. But there are no words for what Coleman Collins is trying to describe. Twenty minutes earlier, Collins was driving and dunking, piling up a career-high 32 points as his Virginia Tech basketball team rolled past James Madison, 77-58. Now he leans against a railing as his teammates make their way to the bus, a faraway look settling across features that are still trying to shake off some baby fat on their way to being fine-boned.

Southern Illinois and Virginia Tech are trying to continue taking big steps forward today in the NCAA tournament. After Virginia Tech lost three of its first seven games, men's basketball coach Seth Greenberg had to answer some uncomfortable questions about his team. With five seniors, this was supposed to be a breakthrough year. What did the early losses to Western Michigan, George Washington and Southern Illinois mean? Greenberg couldn't help himself. He had to cut in when Southern Illinois was mentioned.

Coleman Collins will try to focus on basketball after his father, Jackson Collins, dies of lung cancer. Coleman Collins got the news early Monday morning. After a long battle with lung cancer, Collins' father, Jackson, died at age 56. Jackson Collins had been in hospice care since early January, and Collins, a center on Virginia Tech's men's basketball team, missed two games late last month to be with his father in Atlanta as his condition worsened. "Obviously, he has some closure, because he's been waiting for the phone to ring, but we've also got to get him some help," Hokies coach Seth Greenberg said.

The images would have haunted forever. Zabian Dowdell's giveaways and scoreless second half; Coleman Collins' missed dunk; Jamon Gordon's bricked free throws; Seth Greenberg's technical foul. Lose a taut NCAA tournament game, as Virginia Tech was destined to do Friday night, and such gaffes never vanish. They wake you in the middle of the night, startle you during a stroll in the park. But what the Hokies lack in talent, and it's plenty, they possess in resiliency. They've overcome personal tragedies, basketball injuries and everyone's doubts, including their own. So the 10-point deficit to Illinois with less than five minutes remaining wasn't life-and-death.

Coleman Collins' steady play at center has been key to Virginia Tech's surprising fourth-place finish in the ACC. Coleman Collins is featured in a commercial for the United Way, televised at halftime during some of Virginia Tech's ACC basketball games. The scene is a Blacksburg-area retirement home, where Collins talks about the agency's services to the elderly. "We're here," he says at the conclusion of the spot, "bringing help where it's needed." The motto describes Collins' role as the Hokies' center perfectly.

Coleman Collins' double-double isn't enough as the Hokies fall to N.C. State in his first game since his father's death. The little boy approached him shyly, his voice barely audible. "Excuse me." With the longest game of his life behind him, and the longest day still ahead, Coleman Collins turned and signed an autograph. Collins paused on his way out of Cassell Coliseum, where his Virginia Tech team lost to N.C. State 70-64 on Saturday afternoon. He was headed for the Roanoke airport and a flight to Atlanta, where his father's memorial service will be held today.

Virginia Tech post man Coleman Collins isn't off to the kind of start to his senior season he and his coach had hoped. Virginia Tech men's basketball coach Seth Greenberg is running out of options with forward Coleman Collins. Greenberg has tried being patient, especially considering Collins still is dealing with the death of his father earlier this year. Now, Greenberg wants to see results. At 3-2 heading into tonight's home game against Iowa, Tech isn't playing as well as it expected.

Coleman Collins scores 20 points to lead the Hokies over N.C. State. Coleman Collins went from under the weather to on top of the world in one play, perhaps the biggest of his career at Virginia Tech. The second-year forward scored 20 points, including a fade-away jumper with 12.9 seconds to play Wednesday night, lifting the Hokies past North Carolina State 72-71. "He just made a tough shot," Hokies coach Seth Greenberg said, commending Collins for toughing it out on a night when he wasn't feeling well.

Coleman Collins returns to dominating form as Virginia Tech tunes up before traveling to Tallahassee. Coleman Collins even shocked himself. Virginia Tech's power forward could hardly take his eyes from the boxscore documenting his personal-best 32 points to talk about his eye-popping performance in the Hokies' 77-58 victory over James Madison on Monday. Eighteen of Collins' points came as Tech, in its final tuneup before beginning ACC play in earnest with a trip to Florida State on Saturday, put away the game in the first half in a resounding rebound from Friday's 58-55 loss at Old Dominion.

Virginia Tech overcomes Illinois with defense to survive and advance to Sunday. At some point in Virginia Tech's 54-52 win Friday against Illinois, Coleman Collins had an out-of-body experience. His feet were on the floor, but he said it was as if he was watching from the stands. He was caught up in the emotion of an NCAA tournament first-round game, a first-time experience for him and his teammates. It was almost surreal. By the end of the ragged game, nothing could've felt more authentic.

Seth Greenberg aches for Coleman Collins. Aches for him as much as any young man he's coached. Losing a father to lung cancer. Losing a basketball muse. Losing a confidant and friend. It happened to Greenberg in 1995. It happened to Collins last February. Neither player nor coach has been whole since. But the empathy Virginia Tech's coach feels for his senior center has its limits. As the missed layups (and dunks!), weak defense and indifferent rebounding mounted this season, Greenberg went off. Collins didn't respond.

Virginia Tech has lost 11 basketball games this season. None irked senior Jamon Gordon more than Saturday's. The Hokies played yearlong nemesis North Carolina State in the ACC tournament semifinals. Third-game-in-three-days, no-depth-to-begin-with, point-guard-playing-on-one-leg N.C. State. Yet Tech lost 72-64. Lost amid a flurry of missed free throws and layups. More than a half-hour after the final buzzer, with the locker room nearly vacant, Gordon still seethed. "Damn," he shouted across the room to teammate A.D. Vassallo.

Virginia Tech rides a big second half against Miami to lock up a first-round bye in the ACC tournament. As he sat grimacing and rubbing his sore feet Saturday after Virginia Tech's 73-57 win against Miami, forward Coleman Collins wasn't interested in ticker-tape showers and wild celebrations to commemorate a milestone victory. Leave it to a senior with bigger ambitions to rain on Tech's parade. This one was huge. The win ensured Tech (20-8, 10-4 Atlantic Coast Conference)

Virginia Tech shoots for another big road win in its first trip to Chapel Hill under coach Seth Greenberg. Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg knew it couldn't last. Before this season, he'd lived in blissful ignorance of what it was like to take an Atlantic Coast Conference team into the Dean E. Smith Center. He'll find out tonight when Tech (17-7 overall, 7-3 ACC) travels to play No. 4 North Carolina in a key game for both teams. Tech will be going for a season sweep of UNC, while the Tar Heels are looking to tie Boston College for first place in the ACC and improve their home record to 15-0.

Seth Greenberg aches for Coleman Collins. Aches for him as much as any young man he's coached. Losing a father to lung cancer. Losing a basketball muse. Losing a confidant and friend. It happened to Greenberg in 1995. It happened to Collins last February. Neither player nor coach has been whole since. But the empathy Virginia Tech's coach feels for his senior center has its limits. As the missed layups (and dunks!), weak defense and indifferent rebounding mounted this season, Greenberg went off. Collins didn't respond.

Coleman Collins and Carlos Dixon lead Virginia Tech to its fifth consecutive victory and a share of third place in the ACC standings. Say hello to Virginia Tech, the Atlantic Coast Conference's hottest basketball team. Living a little more dangerously than coach Seth Greenberg would have liked, the Hokies held off a hectic comeback bid by Virginia and emerged with a 79-73 victory Thursday night in Cassell Coliseum. Tech led by 16 points with just over 10 minutes remaining but, for its fourth ACC game in a row, had to sweat out the final minutes.

Nothing like a home loss to the conference's bottom feeder to humble a first-place team. Such was Virginia Tech's basketball fate Wednesday at Cassell Coliseum. And a richly deserved fate it was. The Hokies were comatose from opening tip to final horn in a 70-59 defeat to North Carolina State that left coach Seth Greenberg kicking and pounding the scorer's table. "I'm really embarrassed," he said. You couldn't have seen this coming. Tech was 10-0 at home, State 1-7 on the road.